Jimmy Kimmel called out Fox News for seemingly trying to hide President Donald Trump’s disrespectful headwear choice at a military event.
Trump, 79, attended the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members who were killed in his war with Iran. As six coffins were carried past him at the Dover Air Force Base on Saturday, Trump wore a white hat with the letters “USA” on its front, “45-47” on its right side, and an American flag on its left.
The hat is currently selling for $55 on Trump’s merchandise website.
In its coverage of the event, Fox News twice used old footage of a previous dignified transfer from December 2025, in an apparent attempt to hide Trump’s recent hat choice from its viewers.
In a statement to the Daily Beast at the time, a Fox spokesperson explained that the network had “inadvertently aired file footage from a previous dignified transfer... The archival footage was mistakenly used during the video sourcing process. We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage.”
Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t convinced by that explanation.
“We deeply regret the error, and deeply regret getting caught for the error,” Kimmel quipped in his Monday monologue.
“Whenever the president does something shameful, the heroes at Fox News swoop in to clean it up for him,” Kimmel said.
He added, “But hey, these things happen, right? I’m sure if CNN made that mistake, the folks at Fox would be super chill about it. And I know that if any [Democratic] president did something that was deemed to be disrespectful ... if one of them ran afoul of military protocol, I’m sure Fox would look the other way on that too, right?”
Kimmel played a montage of Fox News pundits nitpicking Democratic figures for minor slip-ups on military protocol. One of the clips featured Fox News host Sean Hannity outraged at former President Barack Obama for saluting a service member with a coffee cup in his hand.
Kimmel sarcastically praised Fox News as, “Not just fair: fair and balanced, folks.” The line referenced Fox News’ old slogan, which the network phased out after 2016.
Although Fox News has apologized for using misleading footage from an old dignified transfer event, critics note that their shows are now cutting around footage of Trump wearing his “USA” hat at the recent event:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has heavily criticized Fox News for the omissions.
On Sunday, Newsom reposted a clip of Trump saluting the soldiers’ coffins with his hat on, writing, “FOX NEWS IS TOO EMBARRASSED TO PLAY THIS FOOTAGE TODAY.“
Newsom’s post told Trump directly, “TAKE OFF THAT HAT AND SHOW SOME DAMN RESPECT.”
